The feds are shooting protesters in the head and using chemical weapons

Last night's episode of The Portland Protests was a scaled-down version of the night before, and the night before that. It seemed like less of a crowd than even on Sunday night, but the same sequence of events transpired, albeit on the smaller scale. I'll spare you the rerun.

But there were a couple of extremely disturbing elements.

First, there were more complaints heard from the protesters that the federal mercenaries are shooting at their heads. Although the ammunition that's being fired is sometimes described as "less than lethal," it should really be called "less lethal." People in other cities have died after getting hit with it in the wrong parts of their bodies.

Some pretty wicked objects come flying out of those rifles. Big rubber bullets, "pepper balls" (which are projectiles that burst with pepper spray, or something else, when they hit you), and even some round metal bullets that look like ball bearings. And too many protesters are getting hit in the face and head to draw any conclusion other than that at least some of the wild, hotheaded stormtroopers are aiming high.

I showed you these yesterday:

Folks, look at it. Is there any doubt? Some of the feds are almost certainly shooting at protesters' heads.

They are also firing tear gas canisters and flashbang grenades directly at people's bodies. Particularly the flashbangs can do a lot of damage if you get hit with one, as one demonstrator did:

And there are now multiple chemicals in the mix. Lately in addition to a gray smoke, which seems to be CS or OC gas, i.e., "regular" tear gas, there's a more yellowish gas thrown in from time to time. Different shades of cloud are quite visible when the many canisters come flying out from the shock troops. Here's my weak attempt to capture the two hues from a video from the other night:

The smoke in the front is not the same color as the smoke in the back. And people who have been subjected to both say they're bad in different ways. There may be additional gases being thrown as well.

No one in the demonstrator ranks knows for sure what is blowing on them, other than CS and OC gas. There's a lot of speculation that's not worth reporting, at least not yet. But one thing that protesters and journalists alike agree on is that after the yellow smoke has passed by, it leaves a strong smell of chlorine in the air. One protester explained, "It smells like you just walked into an indoor community swimming pool." An independent journalist said he detected the chlorine odor nearly two miles from the courthouse after Sunday night's throwdown.

There are also troops walking around during the nightly clear-out with spray tanks on their backs, holding hoses that would unleash who-knows-what. So far, I haven't seen them actually spray anything, but that's not to say they definitely haven't.

So what are these chemicals that the federal government is blowing around in downtown Portland? The occupying force probably won't say, but they won't be able to keep their secrets for too long. Hundreds of people have been wearing gas masks, and the filters have collected the stuff. When the gas-ees identify the substances, I'm sure they'll tell us and we can all be horrified.

Remember, this is all over graffiti and broken windows at a courthouse. And a President who is a deranged psychopath. God, please help our effed-up shambles of a country.

UPDATE, later that day: Here's another one, from Saturday night.